{{Short description|American visual artist (1898–1977)}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Clay Spohn | birth_name = Clay Edgar Spohn | birth_date = November 24, 1898 | birth_place = San Francisco, California, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1977|12|19|1898|11|24}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | education = California College of Arts and Crafts, University of California, Berkeley,California School of Fine Arts, Art Students League of New York, Académie Moderne | occupation = Painter, muralist, printmaker, sculptor, designer, educator | movement = Surrealism, fantasy art, abstract art }}
'''Clay Edgar Spohn''' (November 24, 1898 – December 19, 1977)<ref name="Berkeley Gazette-1977">{{Cite news |date=1977-12-22 |title=Artist Spohn dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-berkeley-gazette-artist-spohn-dies/177703917/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=Berkeley Gazette |pages=26 |type=Obituary |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> was an American painter, muralist, printmaker, sculptor, designer, and educator. He taught at the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute), and School of Visual Arts in New York City. Spohn's art has been described as "whimsical, abstract and satirical".<ref name="The Independent-1974">{{Cite news |date=May 18, 1974 |title=Spohn's art at museum |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-independent-spohns-art-at-museum/177705501/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=The Independent (Richmond, California) |pages=34 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He was a member of the collective American Abstract Artists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Past Members |url=http://americanabstractartists.org/current-members/past/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320224224/http://americanabstractartists.org/current-members/past/ |archive-date=March 20, 2016 |website=americanabstractartists.org}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Clay Edgar Spohn was born on November 24, 1898, in San Francisco, California.<ref name="Hughes-2002">{{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=Edan Milton |author-link=Edan Milton Hughes |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Artists_in_California_1786_1940_L_Z/eC4jAQAAIAAJ |title=Artists in California, 1786-1940: L-Z |date=2002 |publisher=Crocker Art Museum |isbn=978-1-884038-08-2 |pages=1049 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Archives of American Art">{{Cite web |title=Clay Spohn papers, circa 1862–1985, Biographical Note |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/clay-spohn-papers-9468/biographical-note |website=Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution}}</ref> He was raised in Berkeley, California, and graduated from Berkeley High School.
He attended the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) from 1911 to 1912; the University of California, Berkeley from 1919 to 1921, under Perham Nahl; the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute); the Art Students League of New York from 1922 to 1925, under Kenneth Hayes Miller, Boardman Robinson, George Luks and Guy DuBois; and the Académie Moderne in Paris from 1926 to 1927, under Fernand Léger and Othon Friesz.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Who_s_Who_in_American_Art/eZZPAAAAMAAJ |title=Who's Who in American Art |date=1976 |publisher=R. R. Bowker LLC |isbn=978-0-8352-0850-5 |pages=535 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Hughes-2002" /><ref name="Annex Galleries">{{Cite web |title=Clay Edgar Spohn, American, 1898–1977 |url=https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/2238/Spohn/Clay |website=The Annex Galleries}}</ref>
At the Art Students League of New York, Spohn befriended sculptor Alexander Calder, who had an art studio near his classes while he was in Paris.<ref name="Annex Galleries" />
== Career == [[File:Fiesta Procession in Old California, by Clay Spohn, 1938.jpg|alt=Fiesta Procession in Old California (1938) mural by Clay Spohn, in the post office in Montebello, California, now destroyed|thumb|''Fiesta Procession in Old California'' (1938) mural by Clay Spohn, in the post office in Montebello, California, now destroyed]] Spohn returned to San Francisco Bay Area in 1927.<ref name="Archives of American Art" /> He was employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1942, where he created copper bas relief murals, painted murals, paintings, and lithographs.<ref name="Annex Galleries" /> He created a mural ''Fiesta Procession in Old California'' (1938) for the post office in Montebello, California (now destroyed), and a mural (1939) at Los Gatos Union High School (now Los Gatos High School) in Los Gatos, California.<ref name="Archives of American Art" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=February 14, 1941 |title=Local Indian Legend Subject of Mural Just Erected at Los Gatos High School |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-gatos-times-saratoga-observer-local/177706637/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=Los Gatos Times-Saratoga Observer |pages=10 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
In early 1942, Spohn created a body of work he called "Guerro-Graphs" consisting of gouache paintings of abstracted war machines.<ref name="The Independent-1974" /> The San Francisco Museum of Art mounted Spohn's solo exhibition of this work titled, ''Fantastic War Machines and Guerragraphs'' (1942).<ref name="Oakland Tribune-1942">{{Cite news |date=March 8, 1942 |title=Fantastic War Machines To Go on Display |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-fantastic-war-machines-t/177705677/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=Oakland Tribune |pages=44 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
From 1945 to 1950, Spohn taught at the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute),<ref name="Annex Galleries" /> under the directorship of Douglas MacAgy. In 1941, he designed the decor for the first San Francisco Arts Festival.<ref name="Berkeley Gazette-1977" />
Spohn moved to Taos, New Mexico from 1952 until 1958,<ref name="Annex Galleries" /> and associated himself with the Taos art colony. In 1958, he worked as a lecturer at Mount Holyoke College, in Massachusetts.<ref name="Archives of American Art" /> He taught at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City from 1964 to 1969.<ref name="Annex Galleries" />
In 1974, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) held retrospective exhibition for Spohn, curated by Terry St. John.<ref name="Berkeley Gazette-1977" /><ref name="The Independent-1974" />
Spohn died on December 19, 1977, in New York City.<ref name="Berkeley Gazette-1977" />
== Collections == His work is included in museum collections, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Clay Spohn |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/artists/45834 |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) |language=en}}</ref> the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Clay Edgar Spohn |url=https://www.nga.gov/artists/34029-clay-edgar-spohn |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=National Gallery of Art (NGA) |language=en}}</ref> Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Red, Green, and Violet by Clay Spohn |url=https://www.crockerart.org/art/detail/red-green-and-violet-clay-spohn-2011-97 |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=Crocker Art Museum |language=en}}</ref> San Francisco Museum of Modern Art;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spohn, Clay |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/clay-spohn/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=SFMOMA |language=en-US}}</ref> the Oakland Museum of California;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Object number: A83.47.167 |url=https://portal.museumca.org/catalog/?&op=AND&search_field=objectproductionperson_txt&q=Clay%20Spohn |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=OMCA Collection |language=en}}</ref> the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Clay Spohn |url=https://harwood.emuseum.com/people/1082/clay-spohn/objects |access-date=2025-07-29 |website=Harwood Museum of Art}}</ref> and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.<ref>{{Citation |last= |title=The Four Stages of Life: Clay Edgar Spohn (American, San Francisco, California 1898–1977 New York) |date=1935–43 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/397726 |access-date=2025-07-29 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref>
== Exhibitions ==
=== Solo exhibitions ===
* 1942, ''Fantastic War Machines and Guerragraphs'', solo exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California<ref name="Oakland Tribune-1942" /> * 1974, solo retrospective exhibition, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California<ref name="The Independent-1974" />
=== Group exhibitions === * 1953, ''The Ruins'', group exhibition, Record Shop, 3213 Central Ave. NE, Taos, New Mexico; including artists Spohn, Alfred Rogoway, Beatrice Mandelman, Dorothy Brett, Louise Ganthiers and Arthur Jacobson<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 12, 1953 |title=Record Shop Brings Show From 'The Ruins' of Taos |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/albuquerque-journal-record-shop-brings-s/177706444/ |access-date=2025-07-29 |work=Albuquerque Journal |pages=13 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> * 1995, ''Pacific Dreams: Currents of Surrealism and Fantasy in California Art, 1934–1957'', group exhibition, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California; including artists Spohn, Helen Lundeberg, Lorser Feitelson, Adaline Kent, Wolfgang Paalen, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, Ruth Bernhard, John Gutmann, Edward Weston, Knud Merrild<ref>Dalkey, Victoria (March 12, 1995). "California through surrealism's eyes". ''The Sacramento Bee''. p. [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee-california-through-su/177706683/ 156], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee/177706758/ 157]. Retrieved 2025-07-29.</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons}} * [https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/clay-spohn-papers-9468/biographical-note Clay Spohn papers, circa 1862-1985], from Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spohn, Clay}} Category:1898 births Category:1977 deaths Category:20th-century American male artists Category:20th-century American painters Category:American abstract artists Category:Artists from New York City Category:Artists from San Francisco Category:Artists from Taos, New Mexico Category:Art Students League of New York alumni Category:California College of the Arts alumni Category:Federal Art Project artists Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni Category:San Francisco Art Institute faculty Category:School of Visual Arts faculty Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni